2 Chapter 2: White Pines

"City confirmed. The Player will arrive in White Pines Town in three seconds. We wish you happy gaming," said a mechanical voice.

The sight before Thaddeus immediately blurred as he was sent away. The buildings of White Pines Town were chaotically arranged but had a similar style to the medieval ages. The NPCs filled the bustling streets, making them feel as if it was another world. Thaddeus arrived at the front of a church, his new appearance resembling a penniless trader.

He currently wore a gray Novice Tunic and leather vest on his waist hung an almost empty bag of holdings. The bag of holding had 8 unfilled slots, the other two slots were filled with 10 pieces of bread, 10 bottles of water, and 50 coppers. According to his screen, eating the bread and drinking water would recover 10 HP per second for ten seconds.

At that moment, many players had started wandering around the town, speaking to NPCs in hopes of obtaining a request. There were also quite a few players that went out of the village, going out to the wilderness to kill mobs. Every one of them was carrying out their tasks as if their lives depended on it and they couldn't help but wish they could split their time in two. Thaddeus didn't pay attention to the other players as they ran to the Town Mayor's house or to see the Guard Captain.

As he walked down the street more than one of the villagers stared at him. His height and frame drew people's attention, especially from other warriors. Unlike other players running to the forest to hunt, Thaddeus explored the town looking for the carpenter shop.

It didn't take him long to find the sawmill and carpenter shop. The sawmill was located at the edge of the town, near the town boundary and forest. Adjacent to the sawmill and carpenter shop were the tanner and blacksmith.

Thaddeus walked up to the carpenter shop, from outside the shop, he saw a variety of goods in the windows and hanging off the wooden porch.

Thaddeus could see cabinets, crates, barrels, shelves, bed frames, tables, and toys in various states of construction. He saw staves, bows, arrows, spears, wooden shields, and fishing poles. When we opened the door, a bell at the top chimed, letting the shop owner know a guest arrived.

Soon a 5-foot 10-inch man, wearing a red and black plaid lumberjack flannel shirt, and blue jeans covered in sawdust came from a door behind the desk.

"Halloo there! This is my first time seeing a half-bear kin Traveler. Are you lost? The Blacksmith and Tanner are next door.

"No, I came to see you. I want to learn the carpenter craft. I hope you'll take me on as your apprentice," Thaddeus explained.

"Apprentice, now that's something I've never heard before? Do you know anything about carpentry, it's not easy work, lad?" the carpenter asked.

"I've done a little bit of construction, but I've never done any formal training," Thaddeus replied.

"Well do you know about different types of woods, wood grains, and joints?" the shop owner asked.

"I know the differences between woods. I've worked with maple, oak, and pine before. I know wood grains, but only a few joints. My grandparents owned a second-hand furniture shop, so I learned a lot from them" Thaddeus explained.

"Well in that case I can take you on. My name's Joshua, call me Josh. I have an extra bed you can sleep in, but I got to charge you for food. Also, I sell you the skill books for a silver a-piece. Instead of charging you, I'll deduct it from your wages. How does 20 copper a week sound? But I'll charge you 10 coppers for your weekly meals," Josh explained.

Thaddeus was amazed at how real this NPC seemed. He felt like a real person. It was hard to believe Josh was just a series of ones and zeros. These NPCs certainly passed the Turing Test.

Thaddeus accepted the deal and Josh gave Thaddeus a brief tour carpenter workshop behind the shop and the sawmill outback. During his tour, Thaddeus learned Josh was an adept-ranked Level 106 carpenter.

Josh showed him the workshop, which had a workbench with various saws, varnish, glue, sandpaper, mallets, nails, planes, hammers, files, chisels, clamps, various hand drills, etc. The sawmill was a separate building behind the workshop and larger saws and planes, with timber in various states of drying as well as stored lumber waiting to be used.

In Heaven's Gates, there were ten different ranks and each rank had fifty levels. The ranks were novice, apprentice, adept, journeyman, foreman, expert, master, grandmaster, sage, and legendary.

After showing Thaddeus around, Josh showed Thaddeus his room in the sawmill. The room was quaint, a bed single bed lay against the wooden walls and underneath a windowsill. The floorboards were wooden and creaked when they entered.

"You'll stay here. It's not much, that's why I'm not charging you to stay here. In the morning, you're welcome to come to my house for breakfast. My wife Michelle makes good biscuits and gravy and nice shepherd's pie," Josh explained with a smile.

"That sounds good to me, but I was also hoping to learn to cook and little blacksmithing," Thaddeus said.

"Quite the ambitious fellow. I can teach you how to make nails but for anything more than you need to see the blacksmith. As for cooking, I'm sure my wife can sell you her cookbooks for a couple of coppers. She'll also wash your clothes for a few coppers too, trust me when I say that's a good investment," he said.

"Why did you say that?" Thaddeus asked.

"Well before you can start crafting, you need to first learn which trees make for good lumber," he said handing Thaddeus a one-side axe.

When Thaddeus reached for the axe, he was unable to grasp it and an error message popped up.

System Error: This Axe is too Small for your Character Build

"This axe is too small for me. Do you where I can find a larger axe?" Thaddeus wondered.

"Hmm, I see. Why don't you go to the blacksmith? Tell Roy I sent you. He might have something for you," Josh recommended.

Thaddeus left the sawmill and walked a quarter mile to the blacksmith. Along the way, he passed the tanners, and the stench of formaldehyde was so strong it almost made him vomit. In the window, he saw various pelts, leather armor, and cloaks for sale. One cloak, in particular, caught his eye. It was a light brown skin fur cloak with a hood. He didn't know why, but he recognized the light brown fur was bear skin.

Thaddeus decided he wanted a closer look, so he entered the shop. Just like the carpenter shop, a bell chimed when he entered the store.

"Hello Traveler, how may I help you?" ask a young woman with brown hair and eyes.

"I was passing by, and the bear skin fur cloak caught my eye," Thaddeus said.

"Oh, that, it's a bit pricey. It cost one piece of gold. Might I show you something less expensive?" she slyly tried to refocus Thaddeus' interest on an inexpensive wolf fur cloak.

"No, it's fine. I was just curious. The cloak caught my eye and I wanted to get a better look. I'm Josh's new apprentice so I'm sure I'll see you around," Thaddeus said waving to the woman before leaving.

"When did Josh get a new apprentice?" Alice thought to herself.

As Thaddeus left the tanner, he could hear loud banging the closer he came to the blacksmith. Behind the blacksmith shop, he could see the forge. The heat was so intense the air looked hazy near the forge's door.

When he walked into the shop, he saw several other players looking at the swords, shields, knives, and axes. All the goods hung on the walls around an L-shaped counter.

Behind the counter was a short copper skinned stumpy man. His biceps bulged out and sweat ran down his face. He had a long braided beard and long hair. The man looked dwarven, but he was too tall. Thaddeus suspected he was a halfling like him.

He looked grumpily as players marveled like children in a candy store. Thaddeus approached the man, for which he gave the approaching bear kin halfling an annoyed look.

"Hello, Josh sent me here to get an oversized axe. I'm Thaddeus his new apprentice," he explained.

"Apprentice?" Roy said his face visibly changed from annoyance to curiosity. "I thought all you Travelers wanted was to kill animals and each other as much as possible."

"There are a few of us who rather learn crafting than adventuring," Thaddeus explained.

"What's he agreed to teach you?" Roy asked.

Thaddeus quickly explained what Josh agreed to teach him.

"Nails? He going to teach you how to make nails. He calls those sorry tacks, nails. I'll be damned! How about this, you learn how to make real nails, and a hammer from me. In return, I'll give you an axe," Roy negotiated.

"Let me talk to Josh, but I'd enjoy learning how to make nails and tools from a blacksmith," Thaddeus said shaking Roy's hand.

"Follow me," Roy said as he led Thaddeus to the storage room behind the blacksmith.

"Hey wait, why are treating him so special?" shouted another player.

"Shops closed. Get out or I'll kill you all," Roy said sending his aura toward the players. His aura was so strong some players vomited, and others fainted.

Thaddeus followed Roy to the storage room. Inside were hundreds more weapons, some much better quality than the ones on display in the shop.

"Here try this?" Roy said picking up a two-side axe. "It belonged to my father."

The axe didn't have any flourishes, it was a plain iron two-sided axe with a 2-feet oak wooden handle and leather grip. Thaddeus could tell the axe was suited for felling trees and not for combat. One side of the axe was used for felling and the other for split logs. It felt right at home in Thaddeus' massive palms.

"Thank you, this is perfect," Thaddeus said practicing with the axe.

"Good, now I expect to see you here once a week. Work starts at sunrise don't be late!" Roy said leaving Thaddeus and walking back into the forge.

Thaddeus returned to the sawmill and saw Josh working on building a new bow.

"Thanks to you Travelers, the business had really picked up around here. The general store keeps placing more and more orders for bows, arrows, spears, and wooden shields. Honestly, I'm glad you showed up when you did. I could use the extra help. I see you found your axe, bring me ten 12-foot timber of oak, cedar, and pine each.

Quest Received: Timber

Joshua the carpenter needs you to cut down 12-foot oak, cedar, and pine trees for timber. Each tree must reach a minimum standard of [Good] to quality.

"Hey Josh, how can I tell if a tree will make good quality timber?" Thaddeus asked.

"That's easy you can tell by the rot and grain after you cut down the tree," he said with a smile.

"Argh," Thaddeus grumbled. He could already tell I would be cutting down more than 30 trees.

Thaddeus probably would have had more fun just interacting with other players and killing weak mobs. But because this game was so immersive, killing animals and monsters was harder than in other games. There was no set command or a button to push for a sword strike. Unless a player fenced in real life, they had to learn the dynamics of sword fighting.

Worse still was that killing mobs didn't net fighters any money. Most MMORPGs award players coins for killing animals or monsters. Heaven's Gate was different. If a player wanted coin, they had field dress the animal and sell the skin and meat. And the price of pelts would be subject to market price. That meant the more they farmed weak mobs the less coin they received.

With everything settled, Thaddeus grabbed his axe and went to the forest to cut trees.